Babel
by lealila
Summary: Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. (Genesis 11:6) A ten fact story series. 1. Anakin Skywalker 2. Barriss Offee 3. Aayla Secura
1. walls of my town - a skywalker

_Walls of My Town_

_anakin can try all he want, but he's better off keeping his hands at his sides._

1. His mother tells him that he's too young to remember time with Gardulla. But he remembers the stench and remembers that he never felt clean.

Anakin never forgets that feeling of being _dirty_ all the time, despite what he tells his mother.

2. Obi-Wan and the other Jedi Masters tell him to forget his life before he came to the Temple.

Except Anakin knows that not even the men so easily gave up their Mli heritage, and okay, he's not really a man now, but he's still part of the Mli, isn't he?

So he tucks away that part of his life, deep in mind, just as he used to tuck himself away when he didn't want to be found. Anakin when he meditates with Obi-Wan—specifically, when Obi-Wan helps Anakin deal with his past—Anakin thanks the goddesses that his heritage remains safely tucked away.

3. (Anakin never really does deal with his past.)

4. The only part he hates about marrying Padmé is the fact that their love must hide in Separatist rail cars and secluded hallways.

5. Anakin wonders why, despite his and Obi-Wan's constant bantering, bickering, and arguing, they don't seem to say much of anything.

6. Ahsoka wants him to be like Obi-Wan. That is to say, she wants him to know when to be Skyguy, and when to be Knight Skywalker.

However, Anakin just wants to be Anakin and still manage to teach her properly.

(Obi-Wan—and other Jedi and civilians, too—have mentioned much much Ahsoka is like him. Outside, Anakin is humble, gracious. Inside, he flinches at how right they are, and yet entirely entirely wrong.)

7. Master Yoda says fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. But fear helps him keep his focus at what he must do: save everyone.

(He has known this since he was nine, but did not understand until he was twelve, when he saw that dying star.)

8. Throughout the whole of Order 66, Anakin tells himself that it's for Padme; for Leia.

They'll understand.

9. When he kneels to Lord Sidious, the part of him called Vader tucks a small piece of him called Anakin Skywalker into a corner of his mind. He feels little regret. After all, he's never been one to so easily let go of his past. And besides, hiding is what Anakin does best.

10. (What kills him, in the end, is not the damage done to his suit—Vader's suit—their suit; nor is it his not-battle with his son.

Rather, what kills him is knowing that for the first time in forty-six years, he's finally free, but he can't do a damn thing about it.)


	2. never be - b offee

_**i took liberaties with barriss's and aayla's age. i have barriss as the same age as anakin, but they don't meet until they are both thirteen. aayla is two years older than both of them. **_

_Never Be_

_barriss has never been a fighter_

1. The first friend she makes is Aayla Secura, when she is six, and Aayla is eight.

This is the start of a beautiful relationship.

2. Barriss is eleven when Master Unduli requests her apprenticeship.

When Barriss tells Aayla, she laughs and wishes her luck. Barriss does not know if she should be afraid or not.

3. Her interactions with the other padawans her age have been rather dismal. Her only real friend is Aayla and while she gets along fine with all her other age-mates, she spends most of her free time meditating or sheltered among the Archives.

4. But then she meets Anakin Skywalker.

5. (Anakin once asked if she has ever formed attachments. Barriss thinks of Aayla and lies.

"Of course not: Jedi don't form attachment."

He gives her an odd look—barely a second, but she sees it anyways—before giving her a charming smile and waltzes away, promising to see her later mathematics class.

Barriss thinks Anakin Skywalker is an awfully odd child.)

6. She is knighted in the midst of the Clone Wars—traditionally, of course: Mirialans do not stray from their roots. Aayla was knighted a year before, due to coming out strong with her ordeal in the darkside.

Aayla smiles, and if they were not light-years away, would have clasped her shoulder. "My friend, had our paths been switched, I still would have been knighted before you."

Though it is undignified to do so, Barriss laughs.

7. Healing has always been her specialty, but watching fellow Jedi die is something she will never get used to.

8. Even if Barriss would live to a hundred, she would never forget finding Aayla Secura's body in a field of flowers, minutes too late to do anything.

9. (She stayed for hours, holding her best friend's body so tight, her nails dug into the blue leather skin.

She stayed for hours, and not once felt any shame.)

10. Barriss has never been a fighter like Anakin and Aayla.

But now she lies and cheats and carries a blaster instead of a lightsaber, kills instead of saves; takes action instead of sitting down and meditating. The markings on her body multiply and for the first time in her life, Barriss Offee commands instead of obeys.


	3. held my tongue - a secura

_Held My Tongue_

_aayla is not bound by the laws of the galaxy_

1. Despite what her fellow age mates might think, it was Barriss who came up to her and decided that they were going to be friends.

2. Aayla has always wanted a pink lightsaber.

So when she comes out of Illum's caves with a blue blade, she's wonderfully surprised.

She never knew the crystals could match skin color!

3. Over time, Aayla has dealt with many leering gestures and facial expressions. She asks why, not truly understanding and barely fifteen standard. Quinlan answers, rather warily, that on many planets—especially the less civilized ones—Twi'leks are treated as toys, dancers; alive for no other reason than to entertain.

4. (She rages to Barriss for what seems like hours, even knowing that Jedi don't do anger. When Aayla takes a breath, the younger Mirialin girl places a tattooed hand on her shoulder.

"And now," she says, "you fight back.)

5. (Aayla has never been passive, but now, she fights even harder.

Especially, she thinks but does not say, for those who cannot.)

6. She fights in the Clone Wars like her fellow Jedi, and tries not to find a pleasure in it.

(A lasting effect from her flint in the darkside, but she doesn't mind so much.)

7. While Aayla works well with Jedi, she works best with the clones.

Her clones.

8. Even betrayal will not make her feel any negative emotions towards the men.

9. Once, while stuck on Endor, Aayla was called a forest spirit—a god. She dismissed the title as nonsense, but now, free in the Force, free to be with Barriss when she chooses, Aayla thinks the title is more than appropriate.

It is _true._

10. (When Barriss finally joins her years and years later, she laughs and asks for a dance.)


End file.
